Hosiery and method of making the same



April 5, 1932.

Ov U. ZERK HOSIERY AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed May 28, 1930 Patented Apr. 5, 1932 v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE oscan u; znnx, or CHICAGO, rumors nosmmr AND METHOD or MAKING THE SAME I 7 Application filed May 28,

My invention relates generally to hosiery and methods of making the same, and more particularly to a novel type or kind of ladies. hosiery which, due to its construction and u the method in which it is dyed, produces an optical illusion of shapeliness of limb.

It is an object of my invention to provide improved hosiery, especially for ladies wear,

which is dyed in such a manher'that pdrtions thereof will be of a comparatively dark shade, while other portions will. be of a relatively light'tint, andthe intermediate portion, or portions, will be of gradually differing color the wearers 1 depth so that the hosiery when worn. Wlll give the effect of a uniformly dyed hose, portions of which lie in a shadow. In this way, because of the resultant optical illusion, portions of the wearers leg which are disproportionately large may be made to appear smaller,

and vice versa. The wearerls legs may thus be made to appear properly proportioned and to acquire an attractive shapeliness.

A further object is to provide hosiery which :5 will impart to'the legs of the wearer an appearance of slenderness at the calf or at the knee and calf.

. A further object is to provide an improved method of dyeing hosiery to obtain the above- 39 mentioned efl'ects.

Other objects will ing description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

. Fig. 1 shows a stocking or hose for use by i colored hose of a single shade and without a.

pattern are not generally worn because of their lack of aesthetic appeal, especially if worn'with light colored clothes. F urth erappear from the follow 1930. Serial No. 456,835.

more, the optical illusion thus produced by a dark colored hose is freque'ntly undesirable, since it not only makes the ankle of the wearer appear smaller, but also decreases the ap-' parent size of the calf, which, for limbs hav- I in under-developed calves, is a disadvantage.

Tt has been attempted to obtain some of the advantages of my invention by knitting portions of the-hosein double thickness. This,however, has the disadvantage in that so it shows a sharp break at the line of joining the double-knit portionwith the single knit portion and thus removes the efiect of the optical illusion which might otherwise be produced. y Y The hose of my invention are adapted to be dyed in practically any desired color which has a wide range of pleasing tints and shades. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, the hose may have portions thereof dyedv in different colors, provided the colors are such which will readily blend into one another.

As shown in Fig. 1, the hose 10 has a com 'paratively darkly shaded calf portion. 12,

and is adapted to be worn by a person having .76 a disproportionately Iarge'knee. The knee portion 14 is of a comparatively light tint at its upper end and shades gradually by imperceptible degrees into the deeper colored calf portion. This. gradual increase in color depth is more or less diagrammatically i'llustrated in the drawings, but it will be understoodthat the variation in color depth is so gradual that it is impossible to discern a line of color demarcation, and the hose, especially when being worn, will have the a earance of a uniformly colored hose, the cal ;,portion of which lies in a. d-ifi'used shadow. The ankle portion '16 of the hose is also of a lighter tint and blends by imperceptible increments of color depth with the more darkly sh ded knee portion. Thefootjportion 17 and the thigh portion 19 a're of the'same color depth as the lower end of the calf portion. If desired, the. calf portion may be dyedin one color and the remaining portion of the hose in another darker color, it being essential however that the colors be such as blend well so that there will be no apparent line of"iie-" marcation between the twocolors; Various pastel tints may thus be combined in a pair of hose to produce veryv beautiful effects.

In Fig. 2 is illustrated a hose 20 which Wlll,

when worn by a person having over-developed calves and disproportionately large knees, make the legs appear shapely and wellproportioned. In this hose both the knee and I calf portions 2, 24 are dyed in acomparatively dark shade of the color used, while the thigh portion 26, ankle portion 28 and foot portion 30 are dyed in a relatively lighter shade. As above described with reference to Fig. 1, the darker shaded portions blend by imperceptible degrees of variation in color -depth with the lighter colored portions. If

desired, two different colors may be used in a manner similar to that above described. In Fig. 3 is illustrated a machine or apparatus which may be utilized to effect the dyein operation. The apparatus comprises a tan 40 containing the dyeing solution. The level of the solution is maintained constant and circulated through the tank by a pump 42 driven by a motor 44. A discharge pipe 46 connects the pump with the tank 40 one 0 which is shown), and a bottom plate 59 is mounted for vertical reciprocation upon a plurahty of rigid posts 58. Compression coll'sprmgs 60supported around these posts tend normally to raise the frame until the plate 54 abuts against heads 62 formed at the end of the posts 58.

The plates 56 each have a plurality of reg-- ularly spaced rows ofholes 64. Wires 66 are adapted to have their ends passing through these holes 64 and the wires are thus adapted to form a supporting surface of any desired ,contour for a web 68 which is intermittent- 1y fedthrough the apparatus by feed rolls 70. Tension rolls 72 guide the web asit is fed into the apparatus. A frame, comprising a plurality of rods 74 suitably joined together and mounted for vertical reciprocation in gulde blocks f? 6, forms a support for a pair of crossbars 78 (only one of which is shown) A plurality of bars 80are adjustably mounted on each of the cross bars 78 and at their, lower ends have openings through which wires 82 maybe threaded. At each end of the cross bars 78 are slidabl mounted presser bars,84 which carry rol ers- 86 at their lower endsand are pressed downwardly by compression springs 88.

A pair of levers 90 are each pivotally mounted upon a' suitable support 92 and at their outer ends have a pin and slot connecslots through which a pin 94 projects, The

pin 94 is mounted eccentrically upon a disc 96 carried by a shaft 98. "The shaft 98 is driven at the desired variable speed by a man ,with the was 74. The inner ends; of; these levers 90 overlap and have registering motor 110 connected to the shaft 98 through a gear box 102.

The size of the wires 66 and 82 is greatly I exaggerated in the drawings, these wires being preferably of a very fine piano wlre which is stretched taut between the plates 59 and the bars respectively, The web 68 is preferably of as diaphanous acharacter as is compatible with thenecessary, strength and may, for example, be of a very coarse mesh screen made of fine wire or other suitable foraminated material.

In the operation of this apparatus, a plu- I The web is then fed into which. may be any suitably timed intermittent gearing) so that the hose will lie above the cross wires 66. It will be understood that the frame/which includes the plates 56, will'be in its uppermost position. After the hose is thus in position above the tank the motor 100 will operate through the intermittent gearing contained within the box 102 slowly to depress the upper frame which carries the wires 82. The wires 82,- being of course arranged so as to form a contour parallel to thatformed by the wires 66, will move downwardly until the web is conformed to this contour, being held between two sets of wires. Thereafter the continued downward movement of the upper frame .will move the lower frame downwardly against the compression of the springs 60. The lowermost portion of the web will, of course, enter the dyeing liquid first and thereafter the adjacent portions of the web will be immersed. It will be understood that the movement of the upper frame is comparatively'slow (depending "upon the s eed of action of the dyeing solution) set at the portion of the hose which is thus immersed first will remain within. the solution for a much longer timethan the remaining portions of the hose. It will be noted, however, that the contour ofthe plane formed by the wires is such that the difierence in the time of immersion between adjacentportions of the hose will be very slight and thusthe hose will be dyed in such a manner that the more darkly dyed portions will blend by imperceptible degrees of variation in color depth from the portions dyed in the light tint. It will be understood that by securin'g'the wires 66 and 82in the appropriate manner the esares paratively rapid and as soon asthe plate 59 abuts against the'heads 52 of the posts 58 and the web 68 is thus no longer held between the wires ('36 and 82, the feed rolls 68, 70 will be rapidly rotated to carry the hose to a suitable washing tank and simultaneously bring a set of undyed hose into dyeing position.

As an alternate or modified method of dyeing the hose in the manners illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the apparatus shown in Fig. 4 may be employed. In this apparatus a web 102 is fed over rolls 104, 106 and 108 so as to have the lower portion thereof dip into the dyeing solution in a tank 110. After passing through the tank 110 over the roller 108 the web is fed into a washing or rinsing tank 112, being drawn therethrough by feed rolls 39 114. The latter rolls are geared together and driven by a gear 116. The latter gear is rotated by a motor 118 through a suitable gearing mechanism contained within a housing 120. A plurality of hose 122 are suitably placed upon the web 102 and thus fed first through the dyeing solution and then through the washing solution or fixing solution. It will be noted that only a small portion of the hose will be in the dyeing solution at one time. Thus, by varying the speed at which the hose is drawn through the dyeing solution, the various portions of the hose will be immersed in the cylinder for different time intervals and the portions therefore dyed to different degrees of saturation. The speed at which the web is drawn through the solution is made to vary very gradually so that the effects illustrated in Figs. 1. and 2 may readily be obtained. The variation in speed of the drive of the web may be accomplished wholly by gearing contained within the housing 20 and driven by a constant speed motor or the speed of the motor itself may be. controlled by an automatically and gradually varying rheostat in the'field Or armature. winding of the motor.

The latter method is preferable because the speed of the web may .be varied more gradually by means of a rheostat than can readily be obtained by mechanical gearing interme-' diate the motor and the drive rolls.

As a further alternative method, the thread i or yarn of which the hose is made may be dyed previous to the knitting operation. In carrying out this process the yarn or thread suitable apparatus so that lengths thereof will be of different shades or tints and the hose-knitted from such yarn or thread will have the appearance of the hose as described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2.

If the hose is to be dyed in two colors (as distinguished from different shades or tints of the same color) the hose is first dyed by any one of the processes above described with thedye of one color and then dyed with the dye of the other color by a similar process.

The process in general as carried out by any one of the specific processes illustrated or described is that of immersing the finished hose (or the yarn or thread of which it is made) in a dyeing solution for difi'erent periods of time, thus to have portions thereof completely saturated with the dye and other portions thereof incompletely saturated and the intermediate portions varying by imperceptible degrees so that the former two portions blend into each other.

The article made by the processes herein described is claimed in my United States Letters Patent No. 1,817 ,053, issued August'4,

1931, while the alternative methods disclosed but not claimed herein are claimed in my copending applications Serial Nos.456,333 and 456,334, filed May 28, 1930.

WVhile I have shown and described the preferred embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that I do not wishto limit myself to the specific disclosure but that other decorative patterns may be added to the hose shown, for example, clocks, lined or blocked decorative patterns may be added to the portion of the hose covering the heel and ankle. If desired, a block or line pattern may also be added to the upper portion of the hose to produce any desired artistic or aesthetic efi'ect.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: The method of making hose having portioiisthereof dyed in a dark shade and other portions in lighter tints of a single color, which comprises separating the thread or yaririn piecesof sufiicient length to knita complete hose and passing the thread or yarn through a dyeing solution at varying speed in such. manner that only a comparatively short length of the thread or yarn is im-.

mersed in the dyeing solutionat one time, and

knitting a hose from dyed thread or yarn so that the finished hose will have a darkly shaded portion and a lightly tinted portion,

which blend into one another by imperceptible degrees of color depth variation.

In witness whereof,I hereunto subscribe my name this 23d day of May, 1930. OSCAR U. ZERK. 

